IAP NEWS UPDATEMarch 12th – March 18th 2011

Publication: McGraw-Hill Research FoundationTitle: PISA Leaders Offer 'Best Practices' Used by Countries with the Highest Performing Educational SystemsAuthor: Andreas Schleicher and Dr. Steven PaineDate: March 16th, 2011Website: http://www.mcgraw-hillresearchfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/pisa-intl-competitiveness.pdfSurvey: PISA

Position Paper Addresses Key Issues on U.S. Education Secretary's Agenda for International Summit; Provides Recommendations to Re-Establish U.S. as a World Leader in Education

What can be learned from other countries to develop a more effective educational system for one's own country? That critical question will be addressed by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan when he hosts the first International Summit on the Teaching Profession on March 16 and 17 in New York along with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Education International, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and education officials from the United States and 25 leading countries. A new position paper released today by the McGraw-Hill Research Foundation addresses that question head-on, presenting some of the best educational practices from countries around the world.

"What the U.S. Can Learn from the World's Most Successful Education Reform Efforts" is the title of the paper. It is co-authored by Summit guest speaker Andreas Schleicher, the director of OECD and Program for International Students Assessment (PISA), and Summit attendee Dr. Steven Paine, vice president of strategic planning and business development at CTB/McGraw-Hill and former state superintendent of schools in West Virginia. As West Virginia's superintendent, Paine revamped the state's curriculum to bring it closer to the standards demanded by PISA and the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.

For the U.S. to remain economically competitive, Schleicher and Paine contend that it will need to raise the status of the teaching profession and maintain a common set of standards to match those of countries that have the most effective educational systems in the world. Optimistic that the U.S. can improve its performance, Paine notes, "The U.S. has the resources and the talent to compete more effectively and raise its level of educational achievement." However, he points out, change is only possible if the U.S. "demonstrates with its actions that it truly values education, displays an understanding of the vital importance of having an educated workforce that can compete globally, and develops the political will to devote the necessary resources for educational reform."

The benefits to improving U.S. education achievement could be quite significant, says Schleicher, referencing a recent study by the OECD and Hoover Institute at Stanford University. "If the U.S. could boost its average PISA scores by 25 points over the next 20 years, it could lead to a gain of $41 trillion for the U.S. economy over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010."

In analyzing PISA results, the authors cite several factors in U.S. education that may have contributed to the nation's mediocre PISA scores over the last decade. Among them:

The low status American society places on the teaching profession. High-scoring countries like Finland, which regularly tops global comparisons of national performance, afford teachers a status comparable to doctors, lawyers and other highly regarded professionals. Finnish teachers are not highly paid but they enjoy tremendous respect. Similarly, Singapore ranks the profession of teaching as one of the most esteemed, with only the top one-third of the secondary school graduating class eligible to become teachers.

High standards across the board. Most of the high performing countries have developed world-class academic standards for their students and base their model on the premise that it is possible – and necessary – for all students to achieve at high levels.

Less money per student in economically disadvantaged schools.  The U.S. spends less money per student in its economically disadvantaged schools. In about half of OECD countries, the assumption is that disadvantaged children should have more and better teachers.

Socio-economic background plays a role in the U.S. but shouldn't be deterministic. Seventeen percent of the variation in U.S. student performance on the 2009 PISA assessments can be explained by a student's socio-economic background, a far higher percentage than the OECD average. In Canada or Japan, for example, only 9 percent of a student's score is influenced by socio-economic differences.

The policy paper offers some key recommendations for U.S. schools -- taken from countries with high performing educational systems:

1. raise the status of the teaching profession, with higher standards for teacher education, more practical classroom experience for those still in school and more professional development for those on the job;

2. consistently implement common core standards; 3. establish ongoing, summative assessment and intervention that adequately

provides educators with real-time data to inform and tailor instruction; 4. develop leaders at the local and school level; and5. invest resources that allow school heads and school faculty to have greater local

ownership of performance and practice new ideas and learn from their colleagues.

The most important lesson to be learned from high-achieving PISA nations, according to Schleicher and Paine, is in the investment, preparation, and development of high quality teachers. The U.S. must begin taking steps to elevate the status of the entire profession, while equipping all U.S. teachers for effective learning in the 21st century. This requires rethinking current methods being used in the U.S. "The U.S. must restore the teaching profession to the level of respect and dignity it enjoyed only a few decades ago," Schleicher writes. "It is also incumbent upon political leaders, our state and federal education officials, parents and everyone with a stake in the education of young people in the U.S. to support their teachers."

Revising West Virginia's state curriculum to bring it closer to PISA standards and the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress tests was no easy task, Paine noted. "It was a challenge to convince so many stakeholders in West Virginia that it was in our best interest to raise standards and suffer a short-term drop in scores to achieve a long-term benefit.

However, in my view, if we're going to spend the effort and money to raise standards, we might as well shoot for the top and ready our young people to compete in the 21st century – with the best educated workers from all around the globe."

Publication: NEA TodayTitle: International Summit Puts Best Reform Ideas on the TableAuthor: Tim WalkerDate: March 15th, 2011Website: http://neatoday.org/2011/03/15/global-summit-puts-best-education-reform-ideas-on-the-table/Survey: PISA

High-performing countries have strong unions. They also support teachers and engage them in the reform process. Many right-wing politicians in the United States may want to ignore these facts, but in Finland, Canada, Singapore, and other nations, collaboration with teacher unions has been a keystone in their successful efforts to improve student achievement – along with vigorous policies to recruit, retain and support their teachers.

These and other best practices will be spotlighted at the first International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP), which convenes today and tomorrow in New York City, bringing together education ministers, national union leaders, and accomplished teachers from countries with high-performing and rapidly-improving educational systems (as measured by the 2009 PISA results). In addition to the United States, fifteen countries will be participating: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China/Shanghai, Demark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

The National Education Association, who is co-hosting the summit, strongly believes that consultation and collaboration with other countries is essential to create great public schools. Joining NEA as co-hosts are the U.S. Department of Education, Education International, the American Federation of Teachers, the Organization of Economic and Social Development (OECD), the Asia Society and public television station WNET.

All issues will be on the table – teacher preparation, recruitment, evaluation and compensation, and teacher engagement in education reforms efforts.

“We will learn much over the next two days,” NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said. “My fervent hope is that we can take a good, hard look at what is working – and what is not – and apply those lessons to schools here in this country.” According to the 2009 PISA results, U.S. students are ranked average in reading and science, and below average in math.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a key participant in the summit, is also looking forward to a frank exchange of ideas.

“We need a high quality system for recruiting, training, retaining, and supporting teachers over the course of their careers to develop an effective teaching force,” Duncan said. “This summit is a tremendous opportunity to learn from one another the best methods worldwide to address our common challenges.”

Coinciding with the teaching summit is the release of a new report called “What The U.S. Can Learn From The World’s Most Successful Education Reform Efforts,” which makes the strong case that the United States needs to restore dignity and respect to the teaching profession. The report was co-authored by the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher, who will be participating in the summit this week.

Finland has long been held up by public education advocates in the United States as a model of effective education reform, specifically in regards to how it upgraded the teaching profession. Teachers spend nearly half of their time in school in high-level professional development, collaborative planning, and working with parents. As a result, more people have been attracted to the profession. Once ranked at the bottom of international standings, Finland now outperforms virtually all developed nations on language, science and math literacy.

Finland has received its fair share of headlines for these efforts, but U.S. policymakers should look no further than neighboring Canada, a country that is in many ways a better fit than Finland, particularly in terms of student demographics. Canada is one of the top-performing countries in PISA, and one of very few that show no gap between immigrant and native students. And, as in Finland and Singapore, teachers in Canada enjoy a high professional status and high level of trust.

What the NEA is confronting in the United States is obviously in stark contrast to what exists in these high-performing countries. The unprecedented attacks on teachers’ collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Idaho and elsewhere triggered an outpouring of support from many of the unions represented at the summit this week. Collective bargaining has a proven track record in the United States and elsewhere, says Van Roekel, in bringing together the stakeholders in identifying solutions.

This collaborative dynamic will be highlighted during the summit this week. According to OECD in its 2009 PISA report, “Without the active and willing engagement of teachers, most educational reforms fail.”

Van Roekel is also interested in hearing more about how many OECD countries benefit from collaboration as they invest resources where the challenges are greatest. Focusing attention on high-needs schools is the essence of NEA Priority Schools Campaign, NEA’s flagship effort to help transform low-performing schools.

“The high-performing schools systems around the globe depend on input and buy-in from teachers and their unions,’ said Van Roekel. “Teachers and their unions here in the United States deserve a stronger voice at the table so that they can become even stronger partners in education transformation.”

Publication: The New York TimesTitle: U.S. Is Urged to Raise Teachers’ StatusAuthor: Sam DillonDate: March 16th, 2011Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/education/16teachers.htmlSurvey: PISA

To improve its public schools, the United States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more, according to a new report on comparative educational systems.

Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the international achievement test known by its acronym Pisa, says in his report that top-scoring countries like Korea, Singapore and Finland recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring and other help in the classroom, and take steps to raise respect for the profession.

“Teaching in the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high-status occupation,” Mr. Schleicher says in the report, prepared in advance of an educational conference that opens in New York on Wednesday. “Despite the characterization of some that teaching is an easy job, with short hours and summers off, the fact is that successful, dedicated teachers in the U.S. work long hours for little pay and, in many cases, insufficient support from their leadership.”

The conference, convened by the federal Department of Education, was expected to bring together education ministers and leaders of teachers’ unions from 16 countries as well as state superintendents from nine American states. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that he hoped educational leaders would use the conference to share strategies for raising student achievement.

“We’re all facing similar challenges,” Mr. Duncan said in an interview.

The meeting occurs at a time when teachers’ rights, roles and responsibilities are being widely debated in the United States.

Republicans in Wisconsin and several other states have been pushing legislation to limit teachers’ collective bargaining rights and reduce taxpayer contributions to their pensions.

President Obama has been trying to promote a different view.

“In South Korea, teachers are known as ‘nation builders,’ and I think it’s time we treated our teachers with the same level of respect,” Mr. Obama said in a speech on education on Monday.

Mr. Schleicher is a senior official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., a Paris group that includes the world’s major industrial powers. He wrote the new report, “What the U.S. Can Learn from the World’s Most

Successful Education Reform Efforts,” with Steven L. Paine, a CTB/McGraw-Hill vice president who is a former West Virginia schools superintendent, for the McGraw-Hill Research Foundation.

It draws on data from the Program for International Student Assessment, which periodically tests 15-year-old students in more than 50 countries in math, reading or science.

On the most recent Pisa, the top-scoring countries were Finland and Singapore in science, Korea and Finland in reading and Singapore and Korea in math. On average, American teenagers came in 15th in reading and 19th in science. American students placed 27th in math. Only 2 percent of American students scored at the highest proficiency level, compared with 8 percent in Korea and 5 percent in Finland.

The “five things U.S. education reformers could learn” from the high-performing countries, the report says, include adopting common academic standards — an effort well under way here, led by state governors — developing better tests for use by teachers in diagnosing students’ day-to-day learning needs and training more effective school leaders.

“Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession” was the top recommendation.

University teaching programs in the high-scoring countries admit only the best students, and “teaching education programs in the U.S. must become more selective and more rigorous,” the report says.

Raising teachers’ status is not mainly about raising salaries, the report says, but pay is a factor.

According to O.E.C.D. data, the average salary of a veteran elementary teacher here was $44,172 in 2008, higher than the average of $39,426 across all O.E.C.D countries (the figures were converted to compare the purchasing power of each currency).

But that salary level was 40 percent below the average salary of other American college graduates. In Finland, by comparison, the veteran teacher’s salary was 13 percent less than that of the average college graduate’s.

In an interview, Mr. Schleicher said the point was not that the United States spends too little on public education — only Luxembourg among the O.E.C.D. countries spends more per elementary student — but rather that American schools spend disproportionately on other areas, like bus transportation and sports facilities.

“You can spend a lot of money on education, but if you don’t spend it wisely, on improving the quality of instruction, you won’t get higher student outcomes,” Mr. Schleicher said.

Publication: The White HouseTitle: President Obama Calls on Congress to Fix No Child Left Behind Before the Start of the Next School YearDate: March 14th, 2011Website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/14/president-obama-calls-congress-fix-no-child-left-behind-start-next-schoo

In a speech at Kenmore Middle School, President Obama urged Congress to fix No Child Left Behind (NCLB) before the start of the next school year.  The President articulated key priorities for reforming NCLB that will enable us to win the future and prepare our students to out-educate and out-compete the world in the 21st century economy:

A fair accountability system that shares responsibility for improvement and rewards excellence, and that is based on high standards and is informed by sophisticated assessments that measure individual student growth;

A flexible system that empowers principals and teachers, and supports reform and innovation at the state and local level;

And a system focused on the schools and the students most at risk -- that targets resources to persistently low-performing schools and ensures the most effective teachers serve students most in need.

“We need to make sure we’re graduating students who are ready for college and a career.,” President Obama said.  “In the 21st Century, it’s not enough to leave no child behind. We need to help every child get ahead.  We need to get every child on a path to academic excellence.” As a recent an analysis from the Department of Education shows, NCLB's broken accountability system means that the overwhelming majority of schools will not meet NCLB's goals and the students most at risk won't get the help they need.  Instead of NCLB's one-size-fits-all mandates, we need to fix this law now so that we can close achievement gaps and win the future. Over the past several weeks, President Obama has highlighted schools across the country that demonstrate the impact of reforms at the state and local levels, the importance of shared responsibility in education, and most importantly the goal of achieving results.  At Miami Central High School the President highlighted the ability of a community to come together and make the tough reforms and take on the challenging work to turnaround a low-performing school. At TechBoston Academy, the President discussed the shared responsibility and positive results of public and private sectors in the education of our nation’s children.     In today’s speech, the President praised current efforts by Congressional leaders to replace NCLB and urged Congress to make these vital reforms before the next school year begins.  With the United States lagging far behind international competitors in science, reading and math, the need for swift reform has never been greater. See below for a fact sheet on fixing No Child Left Behind.

FACT SHEET: Fixing No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a landmark federal law established in 1965.  ESEA was originally

established to ensure educational equity for all students.  The law is routinely "reauthorized" by Congress and has not been reauthorized since 2002 – the longest-ever period between rewrites of this law.   NCLB was proposed by the Bush Administration and enacted by the 107th Congress, in 2001, by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote and signed into law in 2002.  NCLB requires each state to set academic standards; test all students periodically in science as well as in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school ; and to set annual accountability targets for every school to meet.  NCLB sets a national goal that by 2014 all students would be "proficient" in reading and math, and requires states and school districts to intervene in schools that miss their annual targets for multiple years.  However, 37% of America's schools today are not meeting their annual targets mandated by NCLB.  The U.S. Department of Education estimates that number could more than double, to over 80% of schools in 2011, highlighting the need to fix the law. NCLB helped highlight achievement gaps among low-income students, minorities, students with disabilities, and English language learners, and it requires all schools to show whether they are closing these achievement gaps.  However, the law needs urgent attention to be fixed with a new framework that is fair, flexible and focused on results. The President’s Plan to Fix No Child Left Behind America’s future economic competitiveness is being decided every day, in classrooms across the nation.  In order to help prepare each of our children to win the future and  succeed in the global marketplace, the President has called upon Congress to act this year to replace NCLB with a law that re-shapes the federal role in education to better promote responsibility, reform and results:

One Clear Goal: All Students Graduate College and Career Ready:  President Obama’s plan will replace No Child Left Behind’s accountability system with a new federal framework that is fair, flexible, and focused on helping every student graduate ready for college and career. Instead of labeling more and more schools as “failing” under NCLB, the President wants a smarter system that better focuses meaningful reform on each state’s lowest-performing schools and those with the greatest achievement gaps, while rewarding those that make significant strides in helping their students succeed. The President’s ESEA plan invests in the work underway in 44 states to replace narrow, fill-in-the-bubble tests with a new generation of college- and career-ready tests, the results of which will drive a new accountability system more accurately focused on student learning and growth.

A Great Teacher In Every Classroom and A Great Principal In Every School: The President’s ESEA plan will support a new effort to build the teaching profession through reforms that will help states create better systems to recruit, prepare, develop, reward, advance and retain effective educators.  By focusing on teacher effectiveness and driving reforms based in part on evidence of student learning and achievement, this plan will place a greater focus on helping a greater share of  teachers excel while rewarding those that are most successful in the classroom.  The President’s plan provides resources to back the development of teacher evaluation systems that use student learning and other measures to support and identify good teaching.

Fostering Innovation and Focusing on Results: New economic and global challenges, as well as new knowledge about learning and effective teaching, demand new models for our schools. The President’s plan supports incorporating more time for learning and enrichment in and out of school; a continuation of the historic Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation Fund; and greater investments in our public

schools, including high-performing charter schools, magnet schools, and other autonomous public schools. The President’s ESEA plan supports a continuation of  Race to the Top, with a new focus on supporting school districts that are prepared to implement and sustain comprehensive reforms.  Technology can help schools move away from a one-size-fits-all approach, personalize learning, and enable students to progress and succeed at their own pace.

A 21st Century Education for Every Student:  The President’s ESEA plan would dedicate new resources and promote greater state and local flexibility for schools to implement high-quality instruction in reading, math, and science, along with a well-rounded curriculum that will equip students with the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century. Our nation’s employers need a workforce of critical thinkers, problem solvers, communicators, and collaborators – and looking for candidates who bring creativity and ingenuity to the job. Our entire education system – from standards to assessments to how we train and support teachers – must promote high levels of learning and strong academic skills.

Challenging the Status Quo: All Students Ready for College and Career

NCLB Status Quo:  Rely on unsophisticated bubble tests to grade students and schools.The Obama Plan:   Support better tests.  The Obama Administration has invested $350 million to support states in their efforts to create more sophisticated assessment systems that measure problem solving and other 21st century skills and that will provide teachers will timely information to help them improve instruction. NCLB Status Quo:  Teachers and principals don’t get credit for improving student scores.The Obama Plan:  Replace the current pass-fail school grading system with a system that rewards teachers, principals and schools for showing they’ve helped students improve and doesn’t just judge them for how students did on one test on one day. NCLB Status Quo:  States lowered standards to meet yearly goals under No Child Left Behind.  Often, students graduating from high school need remedial courses in college.The Obama Plan:  Support efforts of the nation’s governors and State education leaders to adopt college and career ready standards so when kids go to college they won’t need to take remedial courses. NCLB Status Quo:  A narrow curriculum focused only reading and math.The Obama Plan:  Invest in state and local efforts to develop a well-rounded curriculum and allow states to include subjects beyond reading and math in their accountability system. NCLB Status Quo:  Schools that are doing well often get mislabeled as "failing" under No Child Left Behind’s broken accountability system.The Obama Plan:  Offer greater flexibility to states and school districts in identifying areas of improvement and strategies for addressing poor performance, while requiring more meaningful change in the most challenging schools. NCLB Status Quo:  Too often the schools with the greatest challenges don’t have the most effective teachers.The Obama Plan:  Provide incentives and accountability for getting effective teachers to the schools that need them the most, and identifying and leaning from the most effective teachers. NCLB Status Quo:  The federal government prescribes “one size fits all” solutions.The Obama Plan:  Do away with unnecessary federal mandates and increase local control

to pursue solutions focused on results.  If schools aren’t meeting targets, improvement strategies need to be locally crafted to address the problems in those schools. NCLB Status Quo:  No Child Left Behind does not promote or reward innovation in schools.The Obama Plan:  Support competitive grant programs that reward states and schools for changing the system by improving how they get the best teachers in the classroom, extending the school day and year, supporting the creation of smarter tests, using data to improve practice, and raising standards for all kids. NCLB Status Quo:  Our nation’s lowest-performing schools lack the resources and reforms needed to improve.    The Obama Plan:  Invest in ambitious and bold efforts to transform our nation’s lowest achieving schools, while demanding new and dramatic change in their leadership and reforms to teaching and learning at those schools. NCLB Status Quo:  Parents are often under-engaged in their child’s education, and schools are often unwelcoming of parents.The Obama Plan:  Double the federal investment in family engagement and provide new incentives for schools to develop innovative ways to engage parents and community members. NCLB Status Quo:  States often lack the resources to support and address the unique challenges of rural schools.The Obama Plan:  Support innovation and reform directed at rural challenges.  Support the funding necessary for these schools to better use  technology in the classroom and address the challenge of recruiting and retaining effective teachers and principals.

Publication: The GuardianTitle: Germany's middle class happy with rampant inequality in schoolsDate: March 15th, 2011Author: Alexandra ToppingWebsite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/15/germany-middle-class-inequality-schools

Politicians battle to change education system they say discriminates against poor and immigrant children

Ulrich Becker, the headteacher, has no doubt about what Germany must do to tackle inequalities in education. "We need schools that are not separated by social class – it is a huge social and political problem," he says, sitting in his office in the fading 1970s building of the Kurt Tucholsky Schule in Hamburg.

"And to those parents who don't want to deal with students who are not dropped off by a Porsche, we should say – maybe it would be better for society if you found a private school for your children," he adds, with a steely look.

Becker's school is at the heart of the battle. Politicians and education experts are eager to change a system they say discriminates against poor and immigrant children; but middle-class parents are determined to maintain a status quo that tends to favour their children by streaming them into the best schools.

Each of Germany's 16 states (or Länder) plans its own education system. Some offer comprehensive schools, but most children are streamed at the age of 10 into either the Gymnasium, a route to university; the Realschule, where mid-level vocational studies are common; or the Hauptschule, for a basic secondary education.

Inequality is rampant. Children from a privileged background are four times as likely to attend Gymnasium as a child with similar grades from a working-class home and, according to the federal education body KMK, children of immigrant families attend the Hauptschule twice as often as native children – even within the same socio-economic class.

In Hamburg, the backlash against reform – and a shake-up of the status quo – has been strongest. Here, parents launched a campaign, "Wir Wollen Lernen" (We Want to Learn), which collected 182,000 votes – three times the number required to force a referendum. They won it by a convincing margin last August.

The result was a political storm which ejected the Christian Democrats (CDU) from power in the city and forced the CDU mayor, Ole von Beust, who had proposed the reforms in coalition with the Greens, to resign. Germany is now questioning whether its policy of separating children into different schools according to ability is an untouchable one.

It was a missed opportunity, says Ludger Wössmann, of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. He says that research shows "early tracking is determined by family background, not true ability or potential", adding that "no one really gains, in terms of learning outcomes, from early tracking but it is very difficult to persuade those that think they benefit from it".

Advocates argue that unlike in the UK, where thousands of students graduate with degrees that are unlikely to lead to employment, the German education system produces a well-trained workforce.

That is no longer true because many jobs have moved to Bangladesh or China, says Andreas Schleicher, head of indicators and analysis at Pisa, the OECD's programme for international student assessment, which monitors education standards.

"In the past you only needed a small number of highly educated people, and many more to work for them," he says. "But now countries need to maximise their human capital and make sure that every person reaches their potential – if you don't you pay a very high penalty."

But Pisa's analysis of education in 2000 showed Germany lagging far behind comparable countries on academic performance and social mobility. So there were some changes. More language support for migrant children, longer school hours and more childcare have helped, says Schleicher. Although children only start school at six, compared with four in the UK, parents have access to full-time childcare from three, he says. "Before it was a huge thing to take a young child away from the parents, but now it is the norm – that is a really radical shift."

Any further change will come through a gradual shift in attitude, rather than radical reform, he adds. Even in Hamburg, though the Gymnasium and primary schooling has remained untouched, the four-track system has been replaced by two. "Neighbourhood" schools incorporate all non-Gymnasium pupils, teaching up to the Abitur, the set of exams needed for university entry.

But enabling students to compete with the Gymnasium will be tough, says Becker, the headmaster. When his school took in pupils from the former Hauptschule in September the effect was immediate, and dramatic. "Many of them had no concept of learning, no concept of rules – they were like a lost generation. At the beginning it was chaos, I thought the whole school might collapse," he says. For several months, teachers' focus was on behaviour, rather than learning. And while order has returned, that is unlikely to help brighter students achieve the top grades.

Becker is optimistic for his own school, but fears others will struggle: "The Gymnasium students will succeed, for them it's only a question of turning up on time. But for the rest – it's a battle."

Publication: Global Press InstituteTitle: Brazil Posts Low Education Scores, Citizens Take Teaching Into Their Own HandsAuthor: Deijenane GomesDate: March 17th, 2011Website: http://www.globalpressinstitute.org/global-news/americas/brazil/brazil-posts-low-education-scores-citizens-take-teaching-their-own-handsSurvey: PISA

After 2010 census data revealed major deficiencies in basic subjects like math and Portuguese, President Dilma Rousseff says education is atop her agenda. But as the country struggles to improve educational standards, one priest is determined to teach an entire city on his own.

Jacauna Medeiros is a priest in So Loureno da Mata, a city in northeastern Brazil. But lately, his work has extended beyond the church. In response to low test scores and a lack of government funding, he has single-handedly taken on the task of educating thousands of adults and children here.

So Loureno is known for its reserve of pau-brasil, or brazilwood, the tree that gave the country its name. The country will also host the World Cup in 2014. While many say Brazil's reputation has changed for the better in recent years, new data about the country's educational record has been a blemish.

In So Loureno, a lack of teachers, toilets and sports facilities are among the most apparent problems. Without classroom materials, the majority of students here are testing far below average in Portuguese and math.

"The greatest challenge is related to the lack of material support, adequate places for the students to sit, board [and] airing," Medeiros says.

So Medeiros says he is trying to spark change on his own by teaching new skills and advocating for more engaged citizenship. With an educational radio program and neighborhood-based language classes, he is helping young students learn basic skills and affording older pupils, like housewives who never attended school, a chance to achieve basic literacy and advanced citizenship skills. For Medeiros, education is a tool that can free people from poverty and encourage them to exercise their rights as citizens.

Although education in Brazil has been slowly improving during the last decade, it still produces low test scores compared with other nations in the world. In the impoverished city of So Loureno, teachers and advocates say education is sorely lacking. Medeiros says he felt he had no option but to begin his own program. Illiteracy among children and adults in their native Portuguese, program costs and a lack of governmental support are his primary challenges. But So Loureno's mayor says the city and federal governments have implemented programs to improve education. Still, teachers say it's not enough. Medeiros is not focused on blame or politics - just action and solutions.

In 2010, Brazil's GDP was the highest it had been in 25 years, according to government data. But according to a 2008 World Bank report, the country's lack of education, especially in rural areas, is hurting Brazil's ability to compete against other developing economies for new investments and economic growth opportunities. Brazil's former president, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, who completed only the fourth grade, set a goal to give young Brazilians the chance he never had. With much work still to be done, his successor, Dilma Rousseff, who was inaugurated as the country's first female president in January, called education "the most important issue facing Brazil," according to The New York Times.

Data indicates that education in Brazil has been improving, but it still lags behind when compared to other industrialized countries. In 2000, Brazil ranked last in the Program for International Student Assessment, PISA, a survey conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, which aims to test how much children are learning in school. At the time, just 50 percent of children finished primary school and three in four adults were functionally illiterate in Brazil, according to The Economist. In the OECD's latest PISA in 2009, Brazil showed improvements in all three subjects tested - reading, math and science - but still placed near the bottom. Out of 65 countries, Brazil finished 57th in math and 53rd in reading and science.

And the state of Pernambuco, where So Loureno is located, has one of the worst educational records in Brazil, according to the 2010 census conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE. The majority of kids here attend school, but just 20.6 percent of fourth-graders have reached their grade level in Portuguese and only 16 percent in math. Eighth-grade test scores reflect similar levels. Illiteracy is another problem, as nearly 6 percent of children ages 10 to 14 and 18.5 percent of those older than 15 in Pernambuco are illiterate.

During the week, Medeiros teaches Portuguese grammar, composition, reading comprehension and literature during a 20-minute slot in a radio program on a local station. On Fridays, he teaches English and Spanish. On Saturdays, he presents a culture and entertainment program in which educational content is always present.

"I proposed myself to be in this program in order to offer education in a broader range," he says.

He also runs a language course on Saturday afternoons for 40 to 60 people who want to learn English or Spanish. Medeiros has a 10-class scheme in which he goes to a neighborhood in So Loureno and spends 10 Saturdays teaching Spanish and English at a school or church. After 10 weeks, he moves on to a new neighborhood and starts teaching again. But he encourages his students to continue their learning after he leaves their neighborhoods by participating in his radio program and blog, which he says gets 2,000 hits a month.

One of Medeiros' students, Aleksandro de Paula, 35, says the priest's language classes have taught him new skills and have improved the skills he learned in school. He also says learning new languages will make it easier to receive tourists for the World Cup.

"I'd like to see more initiatives like this and even a continuation, with more advanced courses so that we would be able to receive well the tourist[s] and even get a job which requires English or Spanish," de Paula says. "City hall should support this initiative."

Even teachers say they've benefited from Medeiros' courses. One teacher, Ella Maria, 24, says the opportunity to learn new languages was important for her improvement as a teacher and also as a university student.

"Those classes were good because, as a teacher from the municipal education network and a university student, for sure, I will always need to know English and Spanish," she says. "I also take the opportunity to improve what I've already known and even apply in the school where I work. I would like it to be a daily program."

Medeiros says the program aims not only to teach listeners new information, but also to create "opinion leaders" by giving them an opportunity to practice their citizenship. Listeners can participate in the live radio program via text messages, phone calls or the Internet. Medeiros says that as many as 40,000 people here follow the program and provide positive feedback about how they have benefited from the initiative.

He says he hopes to improve So Loureno's educational reputation once the radio show airs on the Internet and can be heard worldwide.

But Medeiros says it's hard to teach English and Spanish when many of the students don't even know the basics of Portuguese. Plus, teaching materials and radio time can be expensive. He does not earn a salary for his radio program or language courses. Still, students must pay for the materials to participate.

He says he invites the students to pool their money to afford photocopies of the materials but that classes still fall short. He says he makes do with the materials they can afford but asks students to at least bring a kilogram, or 2 pounds, of food once during the 10 weeks to exercise their citizenship by donating to people in need.

The success and interest in his programs have left many here wondering why the government is not offering financial support.

So Loureno's mayor, Ettore Labanca, says he has been working to improve the municipal education network since he took office in 2009. He says his government has raised teachers' salaries by more than 60 percent, improved school facilities and increased student attendance from 11,500 in 2008 to 15,000 today.

He says three federal education programs have also benefited So Loureno's schools. The first program, Everyone for Education, has five goals to improve school attendance and the quality of education. The second program, More Eduction, aims to increase the number of hours students spend in school by offering more subjects, such as human rights, culture and arts, health education and sports. The third program, Teach to Read and Write for the Success, aims to keep young children in school by offering training in reading, math, and comprehension of natural and social phenomena.

Still, Medeiros and other teachers say more needs to be done.

"The situation has improved a little in [the] state educational network, but it is still necessary to unify the incentive to the teacher, improve the welcoming conditions to the students - not only to those who spend the whole day in the school, but also to the others as well - besides integrating the parents [more] [in]to the school," says Milton Filho, 37, a local teacher.

Another teacher, Gabriela Calado, 26, says state schools have improved, but says teachers receive low salaries and are subject to daily verbal abuse and disrespect from the students.

"The respect for the teacher has been lost and to bring it back it's necessary to have a parental monitoring in the student's background, another problem that we face," Calado says.

But for Medeiros, the time for blame has passed. He says he is focused on three concrete solutions to improve education in the city.

"First, it's necessary to offer support to the people or institutions that want to offer education or leisure on the weekends, giving them not only financial aid, but also allowing [them] Internet access [and] classes with dynamic resources, such as projectors," he says.

Second, he says there should be more space for young students to participate in educational, recreational and cultural programs during the week. Third, he recommends

that the government's various ministries form a competent and dynamic network to identify the public's needs.

"The federal government social aid network is only efficient with the honest and competent municipal application," Medeiros says.

Medeiros says that the population is becoming more aware of the educational crisis here and, in order to get a better response from the government, citizens must start to educate themselves, acquiring more capacity to argue and criticize. He wants students to learn more than just Portuguese, English and Spanish from his programs. He wants them to learn that it is possible to have a broader sense of citizenship and to exercise their rights as citizens to take advantage of the many opportunities in the world.

Publication: The Daily MailTitle: The proof exam results HAVE been inflated: OECD warns UK schools are out of stepAuthor: James ChapmanDate: March 17th, 2011Website: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367041/The-proof-exam-results-HAVE-inflated-OECD-warns-UK-schools-step.html

Exam grades have been artificially inflated and billions of pounds in increased spending on education wasted, according to a damning international report.

It is further confirmation of what many have long suspected: that relentlessly improving GCSE and A-level results have hidden a true picture of failure in our schools.

The report, from the highly respected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, concludes that pupils’ actual performance remains ‘static’ and ‘uneven’.

The share of A-levels awarded at grade A has risen continually over the past 18 years and trebled since 1980, it says, but independent surveys of students’ cognitive skills ‘do not support this development’.

Most damagingly, the report concludes that despite Labour’s doubling of spending on education since 2000, children’s success remains ‘strongly related to parents’ income and background’.

The education budget soared from £35.8billion to £71billion under Labour.

But Britain has plummeted down worldwide education rankings in the past decade, with nations such as Estonia and Poland overtaking us in reading, maths and science.

The study of Britain’s economic performance by the OECD, published yesterday, focused heavily on failings in our education system, which critics say leaves millions of children entering the workplace without the necessary skills to succeed.Fuelling concerns that exams have increasingly been ‘dumbed down’ to give the illusion of progress, the report said: ‘Official test scores and grades in England show

systematically and significantly better performance than international and independent tests.

‘The measures used by the Office for National Statistics... show significant increases in quality over time, while the measures based on cognitive tests not used for grading show declines or minimal improvements.’

The OECD added: ‘Despite sharply rising school spending per pupil during the last ten years, improvements in schooling outcomes have been limited in the United Kingdom.’

The OECD said there had been insufficient focus on disadvantaged students in educational spending - leading to ‘large disparities’ in pupils’ success.

‘Incomes and educational outcomes are unevenly distributed in the United Kingdom compared to many other OECD countries, and intergenerational social mobility is low,’ the report said.

‘Schooling outcomes in the United Kingdom are among the more unequal in the OECD area. This leaves many students from weaker socio–economic backgrounds with insufficient levels of competence, which hampers their chances in the labour market and higher education.’

Early years provision was also letting down many pupils, it concluded, adding: ‘Disadvantaged children seemed to perform worse in 2006 than in 2001, while the impact of parents’ income on six–year-olds’ cognitive and non–cognitive skills has if anything increased recently.’

The organisation also condemned a ‘confusing and rapidly changing array of often low-quality vocational programmes’ for 16 to 18-year-olds.

It backed the Coalition’s move to create a new network of ‘free schools’, run by charities, businesses or groups of parents and freed from state control, adding: ‘Increasing user choice would... induce stronger competition between schools which could provide better educational outcomes.’

Chancellor George Osborne yesterday said the OECD report provided emphatic justification for the Coalition’s education reforms.

He promised new measures to boost social mobility by targeting help at disadvantaged children.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said: ‘The latest OECD report confirms that Labour’s spending on education didn’t secure the improvement it should have. But the good news is that the OECD backs the reforms we’re introducing.

‘It supports our plans to open new schools, increase choice, reform league tables and give more support to the poorest.’

Publication: The Gainesville SunTitle: A Finnish model for educational successAuthor: Jaana GoldDate: March 12th, 2011Website: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110312/NEWS/110319820/1109/sports?Title=Jaana-Gold-A-Finnish-model-for-educational-successSurvey: PISA

The future of Florida’s education system is at risk. Proposed major funding cuts and changes for Florida’s education system and for the whole nation are threatening the future success of our state. Unfortunately, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys have showed that American students continue to fall behind in academic skills, whereas children in South Korea, Finland and China have topped the PISA rankings. Of particular interest is Finland who is repeatedly at the top of PISA, yet is one of the smallest global competitive markets in the world. American educators have begun researching Finland’s successful education system to learn the secrets of their success.

The educational system in Finland is based on a nine-year comprehensive school. After completing this basic education, students can choose between general upper secondary education and vocational upper secondary education. General upper secondary schools provide general education preparing students for higher education in different universities.

Finnish children start the mandatory comprehensive school at the age of seven, two years later than American children. Before school, Finnish children have access to free or low tuition preschools supervised by certified college graduates. Children are divided in small groups and a group has to have at least one teacher with a master’s degree in early education. Rather than having an academic focus, these preschool and daycare programs emphasize self-reflection, social behavior, a lot of play, art and music. The idea is that children learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school at the age of seven, they have developed the strong responsibility and interest towards learning.

Finnish schools, which are mostly public, focus heavily in basic writing and reading skills during the first years of elementary school. They also catch the struggling and failing students early and they are offered extra tutoring regularly. Overall, the Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle should not be left behind.

In Finland, the class sizes are also small, for example less than 20 students per class for the first two grades. Students can have the same teacher for several years, which seem to make teaching more effective. School days are short, for example for 1st and 2nd grades only 4 hours a day, slightly increasing with each grade. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Finnish children spend the fewest number of hours in the classroom in the developed world. In addition to the shorter day, they value physical activity due to its importance for improving concentration, focus and motivation for learning. Many schools have 15 minutes recess

after every 45 minutes class. Physical education is promoted and 1 to 2 hours could be spent daily for physical activity from field and track, swimming, skiing, skating, running, gym, volleyball, baseball etc. Even during harsh winters, outside physical activity is conducted.

Finnish school children enjoy full access of free and high-quality health care, which focuses on health promotion and prevention. Also, all children are served a free nutritional lunch every day. The public oral health care system provides free dental care for all children and is also responsible for arranging oral health education for school classes. Schools are well built and maintained and students learn in a relaxed, informal and clean environment. For example, they are not required to wear uniforms and they can take their shoes off in the classroom. It is certain that a healthy body and mind supports successful learning.

The important factor in Finnish educational success listed by U.S. researchers and Finnish experts is that teachers are highly respected. They are credited the highest professional status followed by physicians. Teaching is a very popular profession, and universities select the most motivated and talented applicants. To become a teacher, one has to pass difficult admission tests; only 10 percent of the 5,000 applicants each year are accepted to the education programs at the Finnish universities. This filters the best and brightest and keeps the high value in education profession. On the contrary to American system, Finnish teachers need a master’s degree to qualify for a permanent job. Education studies take several years and are of high quality, addition of being tuition free. Finnish teachers are paid roughly the same as American teachers so it is not the money but the status and prestige of teaching that attracts the best and brightest into the profession.

Finnish teachers have more freedom; they are allowed to design their own curriculum and choose their own textbooks. The Finnish National Board of Education and Ministry of Education issue only very lean core curriculum guidelines leaving local schools full autonomy for planning and implementation. Teachers are not planning the curriculum around standardized testing which probably leaves more freedom for substance and critical thinking. They do not favor competition and schools aren't ranked against each other, and teachers aren't subjected to formal reviews.

One could say that it is not fair to compare this small, homogenous, socialized northern nation to our huge nation of diversity and privatization with vastly different social and cultural issues. However, the importance of highly educated and respected teachers should not be undermined in either case. Also healthy learning environments together with healthy, physically active students are important for successful learning and should be valued regardless of our differences. Early intervention for those students who struggle and fall behind should be emphasized more.

Finnish society strongly favors education with a broad political consensus on education policy. They went through a major education reform 40 years ago focusing on highly educated teachers, removing standardized testing and investing more in education. Education is paid by tax revenue since Finns see education as the key to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive world. It seemed to be paid off. The U.S. can build a strong education system by bipartisan efforts to unite and focus on long-term reform

that advocates for all children and their best interests. State government and legislators should make long-term quality decisions, and find other ways to maintain budgets rather than cutting already tight school funding. Excellent education for all is fundamental for healthy society. Our key aims in education policy should be quality, efficiency, equity, health and the well being of our children. It is our cultural responsibility to provide opportunity for each child to be successful and it is the right thing to do.